KEENE, N.H. – At 34 years and counting, the Keene ArtWalk is the city’s longest-running community event. The annual exhibition, which features submissions from area artists and students, offers an opportunity for experienced and burgeoning creatives to share their artwork with a public audience. For the second consecutive year, artwork from Kurn Hattin Homes for Children is part of the 11-day event.
Located in the Concord Med Spa window on Central Square, Kurn Hattin Homes’ display features nontraditional artwork. For example, there are a number of small 3D objects d’art atop a school desk. These figures were created in the SmartLab by using a 3D pen that heats a plastic filament internally, then extrudes the melted material through the nozzle. As the plastic cools, it hardens to maintain the shape of the 3D object. Because the industry has not adopted an official term for this medium, SmartLab facilitator Ben Weiner has dubbed it “plasticraft.”
At the opposite end of the size spectrum, the window also includes two ceiling-tiles-turned-portraits from the homes’ art classroom, and two grand-scale, computer-aided custom vinyl wallcovering designs that students created during a recent Career Awareness Program visit to Len-Tex Corporation in Walpole, N.H.
Small and large, each artistic endeavor emphasizes to Kurn Hattin Homes students that art can be found everywhere, every day. Students are continually encouraged to think outside the easel to recognize, appreciate, and incorporate art into their own personal environments.
The 2024 Keene ArtWalk exhibits will be on display in downtown merchants’ windows through June 9.